Another week’s worth of local and interstate arts news from HELEN MUSA  in her “Arts in the City” column. 

CANBERRA Rep, which had to postpone “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” on the cusp of opening and was in full rehearsal for “Hotel Sorrento”, has decided to stage the shows in the first and second performance spaces next year, with “Sense and Sensibility” to be performed later in 2022.

IN a sure sign of emergence from the pandemic, Opera Australia will present two outdoor spectaculars, the 35-year-old Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” as next year’s Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour in March and a new production of Bizet’s “Carmen” on Cockatoo Island, where private boats can book a mooring to watch the production. Patrons can join the waitlist at opera.org.au until tickets go on sale in November. 

ALSO in Sydney over the warmer months, the Art Gallery of NSW is bringing in a destination exhibition of Matisse works. “Matisse: Life & Spirit Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou, Paris” will run from November 20 to March 13 with more than 100 paintings, drawings, sculptures and the artist’s late “cut-outs”. Tickets won’t go on sale until November 1 (artpass.com.au) by which time the gallery should be open.

NEWS from Canberra Philharmonic that its postponed production of “Grease” has moved to March. 

KIRSTY Zane, of Budding Entertainment, has acquired the rights to MTI’s new musical revue, “All Together Now!” for Canberra. It features musical songs licensed royalty-free to theatre companies all over the world to perform and livestream in a one-off weekend event, November 12-15. Zane says the show includes numbers from shows as disparate as “Frozen” and “My Fair Lady”. Would-be performers are invited to complete an expression of interest form at buddingentertainment.com

MICHAEL Sollis and the Griffyn Ensemble want to work with artists to create video works that respond to the astronomical work “Southern Sky” by Estonian composer Urmas Sisask and have artist fees of up to $2000 for each artist selected to create one-to-five-minute digital work that interprets or is inspired by the music. Expressions of interest and queries to projects@michaelsollis.com by October 31 and should include a CV, a brief outline of the vision and a basic budget.